Fred's YouTube channel is programming for kids by kids
Last week, someone in the online video business gave me a simple tip.
"Fred," the guy said.
"Fred?" I said.
"Yes," he said. "Kids love Fred."
I had not heard of Fred, much less known that kids loved him. But that would swiftly end. As soon as I could, I searched for Fred on YouTube and found his video channel. There were plenty of videos, and I hunkered down to watch.
A warning before I continue: Fred is for immature audiences only. The following article may contain themes and language that are unsuitable for anyone over 16.
The first thing about Fred is that he brings new meaning to the word hyper. The fictional 6-year-old, invented and played by 14-year-old Nebraskan Lucas Cruikshank, is a fast-talking tyke with "temper problems," an absentee father and a propensity to screech if things don't go his way. If those traits aren't enough to dissuade you, Fred's voice is 'chipmunked,' raising it several octaves above Cruikshank's own to achieve, if not maximum verisimilitude, then certainly maximum annoyingness. Try to imagine a shrill, halting super-soprano bleating these lines from an episode called "Fred Goes Swimming":
"I'm ready to go inside the pool! Oh my God, it's cold. I love swimming. I love swimming! This pool is small. On TV I saw a pool that was really big . . . oh my God, there's a shark! I'm scared. Just kidding, it's just a toy shark. I got you!"
Doesn't sound like your cup of tea? That makes two of us. Let us say we are outnumbered; with nearly 250,000 subscribers, Fred's YouTube channel is the fourth most subscribed in the site's history. Meaning every time he posts a new video, nearly a quarter of a million people get notified.
Since he created his channel less than two months ago, Fred has racked
up more subscribers than almost all of YouTube's old guard, passing up
lonelygirl15, LisaNova, kevjumba, and sxephil. He's also got more
subscribers than the Jonas
Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Soulja Boy, and
oh yeah, CBS.
And those are just his hard-core fans. Once Fred's videos are released,
they rocket into the YouTube exosphere, generating 4 and even 5 million
views a pop -- repeat viewership numbers that are unmatched anywhere on
the Internet. Fred's most-viewed episode, "Fred Loses His Meds,"
would've been the top-rated show on cable last week.
Pretty good for a kid with a camera. Fred -- or rather, Lucas -- lives
in rural Nebraska with his parents and has seven brothers and sisters,
some of whom appear in the videos with him. He goes to school in a
converted barn and had never seen the ocean or been on an airplane
until he visited L.A. in February.
(I couldn't reach him for this article because, a representative said,
he was en route to perform in a national dance competition, and may
have been outside of cellular range.)
It's remarkable that Cruikshank stormed to the top of YouTube without
almost no coverage from either the blogosphere or the mainstream media.
The Associated Press wrote a story in July about Cruikshank and his two
cousins, Katie and John Smet, now 15, with whom he began making videos
in 2006. But that was a year ago, "JKL productions" still only had
7,500 subscribers and Fred had yet to take off. Since then, there
hasn't been a peep.
That an act with millions of fans could escape the popular attention is
more evidence of the digital fissuring of our culture. As we ensconce
ourselves ever further in our respective demographics, personal and
professional, we continue to drift apart from the people right next to
us, until even an iceberg holding 4 million tweens can float by
unnoticed.
Not that we should've noticed. If you're past a certain age, Fred's
appeal is essentially inscrutable. His antics are Kryptonite for
grown-ups, repelling any but the most vigorous attempts to watch an
entire episode and keeping us in the dark about why kids seem to love
him so much.
"They just think he's the funniest thing ever," said Valerie Moizel of
the L.A.-based WOO ad agency, which found out about Fred after it
conducted kid-centered focus groups for its ZipIt instant messaging
product -- which later showed up in Fred's videos. "We watched them
watch him -- they fall on the floor hysterically laughing. They're just
mesmerized."
And more than just the zaniness, it's possible that kids are connecting
to Fred on other levels too. He has parental, behavior and girl
problems, so there's a little something for everyone.
"The biggest draw is the subject matter," Moizel added. "He really
knows how to touch on things that are current and that teenagers deal
with."
So here we are at a moment when for all its cash and talent, the best
of Hollywood's online efforts slide off the wall like penne al dente,
while a Nebraska kid with a $100 camera can attract a giant, hugely
valuable audience by jumping in a baby pool with his clothes on. What
does he know that we don't?
Cruikshank's generation is the first one never to have known a world
without the Internet. These kids speak the language of computers and
technology as well as they speak English -- if not better. So it
figures that one of them would be the first to produce a hit show for
his peers -- one that adults did not help produce and are equally not
meant to watch. This is a new model: for kids, by kids.
"fred your so lol i can't believe you!" read one of the 25,000 comments
on a recent episode. "fred I LOVE YOU haha this is so funny," said
another, and perhaps most representative: "fred iz soo cute!!" It seems
that this farm boy has a few special admirers.
But Hollywood, ever hungry for tween eyeballs, has predictably caught
the scent. Cruikshank recently signed with James Dolin, an L.A. business
manager at Sonesta Entertainment. Along with the product placements --
for which he's being paid "generously," Moizel said -- he's also
appeared in a commercial for the ZipIt that aired on Nickelodeon, ABC
Family and the Disney Channel.
Before long, Cruikshank may end up on stage, playing electric guitar
and drinking virgin mai tais with Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers.
I won't be in the audience for that, and I'm sure I won't be missed.
Mark Milian of Latimes.com contributed to this report.
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posted by atiedesandy @ 06:57
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